1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser treatment apparatus which is used for treatment such as depilation, removal of wrinkles and birthmarks with a laser beam being irradiated to an affected part (a treatment part) of a patient.
2. Description of Related Art
When a laser treatment apparatus is used for performing treatment such as depilation to a patient by irradiating a laser beam to an affected part of the skin of the patient, the affected part is cooled before the laser irradiation in order to alleviate pain which would be caused by the laser irradiation. As such a method to cool the affected part, conventionally, there have been known a method of spraying nitrogen gas on the affected part and a method of decreasing the temperature of the affected part by making a cooling device contact with the affected part.
For execution of the laser irradiation, the positional relationship between the affected part and a laser irradiation unit such as a handpiece provided in the laser treatment apparatus must be stabilized. Therefore there has been known an apparatus arranged to have a support member (support base) which is brought into contact with the skin for stably supporting the irradiation unit. Furthermore, there is also an apparatus arranged to have a member serving as both the cooling device and the support member.
However, the above conventional apparatus may have possibilities that the laser irradiation is executed when an operator does not intend to do, for example, when the affected part is not sufficiently cooled or when the positional relationship between the affected part and the irradiation unit is not stabilized, etc. In such the cases, the unintentional laser irradiation may cause damage to the affected part and the parts outside thereof. The conventional apparatus is arranged to cool uniformly the affected part in spite of the condition thereof. Thus, the cooling could not be efficiently carried out.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and has an object to overcome the above problems and to provide a laser treatment apparatus capable of preventing laser irradiation under inappropriate conditions to an affected part of a patient, and capable of efficiently cooling the affected part.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the purpose of the invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus which is used to treat an affected part of a patient by irradiating a treatment laser beam to the affected part, the apparatus including: a laser irradiation unit provided with a laser irradiation optical system for delivering the laser beam to the affected part; a contact member including a contact face which is brought into contact with at least one of the affected part and a periphery thereof; a cooler which cools down at least the contact face of the contact member; a sensor which detects at least one of a temperature of a periphery of the contact face made contact with the affected part, a temperature of a predetermined portion of at least one of the contact member and the cooler, a contact state of the contact face with respect to the affected part, and a relative substantially horizontal movement of the contact member with respect to the affected part; and an irradiation controller which controls laser irradiation based on a result of detection by the sensor.
In the above apparatus according to the present invention, the irradiation controller controls the laser irradiation based on the detection results by the sensor in order to irradiate the laser beam to the affected part only if appropriate conditions for the laser irradiation are satisfied. Accordingly, the laser beam can be prevented from irradiating the affected part under inappropriate conditions for the laser irradiation, thus preventing damage by the laser beam to the affected part of the patient and the parts outside the affected part.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus which is used to treat an affected part of a patient by irradiating a treatment laser beam to the affected part, the apparatus including: a laser irradiation unit provided with a laser irradiation optical system for delivering the laser beam to the affected part; a contact member including a contact face which is brought into contact with at least one of the affected part and a periphery thereof; a cooler which cools down at least the contact face of the contact member; a first temperature sensor which detects a temperature of a periphery of the contact face made contact with the affected part; and a temperature controller which controls cooling operations of the cooler based on a result of detection by the first temperature sensor.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus which is used to treat an affected part of a patient by irradiating a treatment laser beam to the affected part, the apparatus including: a laser irradiation unit provided with a laser irradiation optical system for delivering the laser beam to the affected part; a cooler which cools down at least one of the affected part and a periphery thereof; a temperature sensor which detects a temperature of at least one of the affected part and the periphery thereof; and an irradiation controller which controls laser irradiation based on a result of detection by the temperature sensor.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus which is used to treat an affected part of a patient by irradiating a treatment laser beam to the affected part, the apparatus including: a laser irradiation unit provided with a laser irradiation optical system for delivering the laser beam to the affected part; a contact member which is brought into contact with at least one of the affected part and a periphery thereof; a movement sensor which detects a relative moving amount of the contact member in a substantially horizontal direction with respect to the affected part; and an irradiation controller which controls laser irradiation based on a result of detection by the movement sensor.
According to another aspect of the present invention, furthermore, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus which is used to treat an affected part of a patient by irradiating a treatment laser beam to the affected part, the apparatus including: a laser irradiation unit provided with a laser irradiation optical system for delivering the laser beam to the affected part; a window unit including a first window member having a contact face which is brought into contact with at least one of the affected part and a periphery thereof and a second window member arranged so as to produce a heat-insulating layer between the first and second window members, the first and second window members each having an optical property of transmitting the laser beam; and a cooler which cools down at least the contact face of the first window member.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus which is used to treat an affected part of a patient by irradiating a treatment laser beam to the affected part, the apparatus including: a laser irradiation unit provided with a laser irradiation optical system for delivering the laser beam to the affected part; a window unit including a window member having a contact face which is brought into contact with at least one of the affected part and a periphery thereof and having an optical property of transmitting the laser beam; and a cooler which cools down at least the contact face of the window member; the laser irradiation unit including a handpiece head provided with a part of the laser irradiation optical system, and the window unit including a plurality of window units having different window members which are of different-sized contact faces, each of the window members being detachable/attachable to the handpiece head.